Bath appeared to struggle throughout this game without ever being in trouble. The struggle wasn't so much that Auch posed any sort of penetrating threat it was more that the English side couldn't stop the French side from spoiling their game. Time after time Bath had good possession and position only to find themselves harried into making mistakes or unable to shake off the close quarter tackling that stifled their preferred open style of play.

Clearly this was a prime game for Bath to adopt an "ugly" style and grind out a victory against a team with limited skill and ambition. These Pool games are all about reaching the knock-out stages, not dazzling the crowd with marvellous running rugby yet it was only on a few occasions that Bath opted to hoof the ball downfield when defending their line.

That the visitors opted to keep their running gameplan either demonstrated a lack of maturity on the part of the Bath players or total confidence that whoever they play they'll stick to their own game. This may work against weak opposition such as Auch but it is not a tactic we should adopt on a regular basis. Those amongst us who also follow the round ball will remember the failings of Kevin Keegan at Newcastle United when he proudly announced that if the opposition scored three his team would score four. This worked well until he up against wily old campaigners like Sir Alex Ferguson who ended up beating Keegan to the Championship title by canny tactics rather than exciting football.

Now don't get me wrong, I enjoyed watching Bendy, Olly and Higgins make dashing runs through the Auch defence but too often this tactic ended up with Bath losing the ball. The one time our running game really came off was the brilliant solo try by Butch James after 18 minutes when he took a ball from Nick Walshe on the edge of the Auch twenty-two, cut one way and then another and then back again before dragging a French defender over the line to score. Magical! 

My view is we should kick the ball from defence for the majority of the time, run it out now and then to confuse the opposition and use the team's marvellous running skills in the opposition half. No point our players wearing themselves out playing fancy rugby out of defensive positions.

Auch opened the scoring with a penalty when Bath were wrapped up in possession within the first minute but Olly Barkley levelled a moment later. However Auch were again back in front after four minutes with another penalty from Albert. And that was the full extent of the Auch scoring for the whole game! 

Barkley added two more penalties and converted James' try to make the score 6-16 at half time. However, despite Auch not scoring and not looking likely to score Bath never ran away with the game. Auch's tight play, very physical tactics and Bath's numerous turnovers meant the English team had to wait until the final moments before they could challenge for a fourth try bonus point.

The second half mirrored the first with Auch playing with total aggression, which saw two players sent to the sin bin. The loss of the second transgressor, Bastide, for trying to punch Lee Mears in front of the touch judge meant that on the next meaningful Bath attack Butch James was able to chip the ball to absent winger's corner so that Andy Beattie could catch and score Bath's second try after 47 minutes. 

Bath failed to score again until the 80th minute when they were awarded a penalty try after Auch had collapsed a scrum as Bath were driving over the French goal line. All scrums were a mess in this game with each one taking two and three attempts to get the ball in and out: why the referee didn't penalise someone for this is a mystery to me.

It was a bitterly cold night, demonstrated by the leggings worn by Bendy, Higgins and Banahan and it was no surprise that no one from the forwards union were seen sporting these garments. Can you imagine the comments from the likes of Chilcott if a Bath prop was seen wearing tights and a Bath shirt at the same time? I've made the assumption that they were worn for medical reasons to protect sensitive hamstrings etc.

The overall performance may have been average by Bath but they've gone to France and bagged four points, that'll do for me!

Referee: David Keane

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